Mistress Of Masks (Book 1) by C.Greenwood Read Free Book Online

less frigid.
    “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Eydis answered. “I only wonder what could not wait until the light of dawn.”
    “The oracle performed her fire-walking ritual an hour ago,” said Parthenia.
    Eydis’s heartbeat quickened in anticipation. “And?”
    “What was revealed to her in the flames required immediate action,” said Parthenia. “You must collect your things and leave the temple grounds. Tonight.”
    “Why? Am I in danger?” Eydis asked, bewildered.
    “We are all in danger,” said the server, for once seeming to set aside her animosity. “The oracle has foreseen a chain of events which will lead either to our ruin or our salvation. But only you can set these events in motion. You are, of course, one of the catalysts.”
    “I don’t understand,” Eydis responded. But she did. From her first visions in the pool, she had known her planned future at Shroudstone was not to be. Not any time soon. Instead, her personal fate was inextricably entwined with the doom approaching Earth Realm.
    “It is imperative that you begin your journey tonight,” Parthenia told her. “The oracle is weakened by her viewing, but she sends you this.”
    She held out a folded sheet of parchment. Imprinted in its wax seal was the shape of a dragon’s head—the seal of the Great Oracle.
    Eydis eyed the parchment as she might a snake. Something told her she wouldn’t like what was inside it. “What is this?” she asked.
    “It’s an introduction to a cobbler in Shoretown called Fenric,” said Parthenia. “You’ll find his village a three-days’ ride from here, along the coast.” The server also produced a jingling coin pouch. “When you present Fenric with the letter, give him this as well.”
    Eydis accepted the heavy coin pouch reluctantly. “What is so special about this Fenric the cobbler, that the oracle sends me to the coast to find him?”
    Parthenia lifted slender shoulders. “He is no one. A means to an end.”
    Eydis must have looked unconvinced because the other woman relented. “Fenric is a friend to us here at the temple, a devout follower of the oracle. He makes a pilgrimage to Silverwood Grove faithfully at the change of every season, hoping for a miraculous cure for his health. He will not hesitate to aid you, as this letter instructs, and will set you on your way.”
    “And where does my way take me?” Eydis questioned, growing more apprehensive by the moment.
    Server Parthenia pressed the parchment into her reluctant hands. “To another catalyst of chaos.”

CHAPTER THREE
    Eydis was glad when Shoretown finally appeared on the horizon. She had been on the road for three days, ever since Server Parthenia sent her so hastily from the temple at Silverwood Grove. The food Lytia had packed for her was running low, and the horse she had been given showed signs it couldn’t be pushed much further. Impatient to fulfill her assignment, Eydis had ridden the animal hard, rarely stopping for rests.
    So, following the twisting road leading into the coastal town, she breathed a sigh of relief. The bracing sea air carried a strong scent of salt and fish, and together with the sight of many fishing boats bobbing in the bay, hinted at the chief occupation of the people of Shoretown. But there were shops, inns, and stables too, beyond all the boats and warehouses.
    On the town’s outskirts, Eydis passed plain cottages with thatched roofs, where shabby laundry hung on the lines crisscrossing the narrow yards. Old men sat out on the doorsteps, smoking their pipes and watching rowdy children chase one another and play in the dirt. The cobbled streets grew wider and became more heavily trafficked going further. Eydis passed a casker’s shop, a glazier, and then a forge, where the blacksmith was beating away at his anvil. Drays rolled down the streets, and the clip-clop of the donkey’s hooves mingled with the noise of the smithy’s hammer and the shouting of old women selling fish on the street